Happy New Year! 12 days into 2017, I don’t suppose it’s too late to say that; after all, this is the first post of the year. Like bread and spread, day and night, a new year almost always goes hand-in-hand with resolutions. And for the better part of my lifetime, I was part of the crowd who made…and consequently broke them even before the second month of the year rolled on. Then one year,not too long ago, I remembered a statement made by a family friend on January 1st many, many years ago: “My new year resolution is never to make any new year resolution ever again.” My resolutions changed to a to do list; like the things I needed to accomplish before the end of a working day, week, month or year. Did it work? Did it alter anything? To an extent. I stuck to them longer and tackled them more ferociously; because it was a victory to tick off an accomplished item. At the end of the year, I wasn’t as pleased as I would have liked to be but I had made tremendous progress in my attitude, developing certain habits and reaching achievements as contained in my[…]

‘I’m Annie’, Chairman declares loudly. ‘My name is Gabby,’ T states just as loudly, not to be out done by her brother. For the past couple of days, the children have been saying these statements often. Annie and Gabby are two of their cousins whom they met at their grandma’s and spent the recently concluded holidays with amongst seven other adrenaline – filled, very active children. It is nine days today since we returned to Lagos, and back to our lives but apparently the memories of the holidays are still playing back constantly in the minds of my children. And who can blame them? They had a whale of a time with their cousins! There was Santa Claus with four presents each per child, their favourite cartoon characters featuring prominently. Barney. Mickey Mouse. Ben 10. They played games and had competitions – artwork (creating a Christmas card) competition, dancing chairs and fashion parade. Of course, this meant more presents. Yay! They had more ice – cream and sweets during the two – week period than I would normally allow in two months. Yum, yum. Everyday was Christmas day at grandma’s! Or how else would they describe going to[…]

It is the start of another new month. So much for my NaNoWriMo challenge. In the last 31 days, this is the first time I’m scribbling on a page. 31 days of no writing (unless I want to count helping the children with their homework or writing a grocery list. And I was supposed to write everyday in the challenge!), no thinking about writing, and no thoughts spared for the NaNoWriMo project I was so certain I’d get involved in and write often enough. Life happened. We had a home invasion on November 1st. At exactly 2.05am, a loud sound woke me up as well as some of our neighbours. It was the sound of our front door being forced open. It was too loud not to be heard in the still and quiet of that night. I saw my beau, by a window, already shouting for help once he realized what was going on. When I came to the same realization, I ran back into the room and, shaking all over, called our next door neighbour for assistance. Then I put the children together on one bed and knelt down beside them. All that came out of my mouth[…]

The next day, in the afternoon, Uncle Tg got married to Aunty Cathy. (I don’t know how, in all my recount of this trip, I forgot to mention that Aunty Cathy and her entire family of very fair – skinned people became part of our entourage too. My sincere apologies. We met her siblings and their family, as well as her mummy. All nice and fun people, adding to all the laughter and camaraderie that was going on). So that’s why we’re here. To celebrate both of them. All that travelling, the family gathering and everything else was geared towards this most important day of their lives; their wedding day. Starting their lives together, forever. Below is something mummy put up on her Facebook page that will be replicated here. No long thing. I Hope You Dance I hope you never lose your sense of wonder, You get your fill to eat but always keep that hunger, May you never take one single breath for granted, God forbid love ever leave you empty handed, I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean, Whenever one door closes I hope one more opens, Promise me that you’ll give[…]

Someone died in my neighbourhood recently. The colourful posters announcing his passage showed a man ten years away from being called a centenarian. They also showed that he had been someone’s father, uncle, brother, grandfather and great grandfather; he had been something to everyone who had known him. And as become the norm, the posters had the headliner ‘Celebration of Life’. That phrase that began to appear in the ‘90s on death notices, replacing the more depressing word ‘obituary’. And perhaps attempting to replace our grief- stricken hearts and sense of loss with new thinking, new paradigms about death. Being thankful that the deceased’s passed this way instead of mourning a life that is no more. I totally get this. I don’t completely agree with it. Back to my neighbourhood. I was running errands on the day the commendation service was slated to take place. I would have gone by the poster – ridden house without a passing glance but for the sound and scene in front of it that stopped me short. Instrumentalists – a trumpeter and a drummer – gave music that was upbeat, alluring and akin to that of a football supporters’ club’s sound during a match;[…]